OneOdio A30 Wireless Headphone Review

Recently, I checked out the OneOdio Fusion A71D, a gaming headphone that was serviceable for such a low price point. Now we move on to the A30, a small step up in price, but still within the less than a hundred dollar range. The A30 is a wireless Bluetooth headphone with active noise canceling. These headphones have a budget price of 69.99. I’ve listened to a few headphones in this price range, the best probably being the Strauss and Wagner BT501, but there’s room for OneOdio to make a significant impression on me with the A30. Do they succeed?

What You Get

• 1x OneOdio A30 ANC Headphones
• 1 x Charging Cable
• 1 x Charging Adapter
• 1 x 3.5mm Aux Cable
• 1 x Drawstring Pouch
• 1 x User Manual

Look and Feel

The physical design of the A30 is nothing out of the ordinary from most wireless headphones in this price range. It has hardened plastic construction and has no other color variation besides black. Aesthetically, it doesn’t stand out from most other wireless headphones, but that doesn’t mean the overall build quality is lacking. In fact, I’m surprised by just how consistent the construction is. It’s simple and maybe a little unoriginal, but they’re light, and fully rotate so that they’re easy to rest on your shoulders. They accomplish this without any noise or swivel, just a smooth and overall solid build which is all you really need out of a budget headphone such as this. The leather headband and ear cups sport a tight fit that holds a solid grasp on your head while comforting it with soft pads that never feel too tight. They might run a little hot, but only after many hours of use, and the ear fatigue isn’t very substantial. 

Design and Functionality

Inside the A30 is a 40mm neodymium dynamic driver, supplying plenty of output power and signal to your ears. Thankfully, this is not one of those Bluetooth headphones that only reach a loud enough level without any room for adjustment. The A30 always provides sufficient loudness with just enough headroom to satisfy. 

Noise Canceling

You can expect up to 29dB of noise reduction with the A30’s ANC. Switching it on without any music playing definitely gave me the effect I expected. The environment has a high-pass filter effect that blocks out most distracting noise. I work next to a pretty loud vent, which was heavily reduced with the noise reduction. One of the more interesting aspects about the A30 is how sound fidelity actually improves when turning noise-canceling on. Without it, the signature becomes quite muddy and tightens up the clarity with ANC. It’s something you don’t usually see but OneOdio makes it work well.

Bluetooth

Oneodio gives the A30 a QCC3003 chipset, supporting Bluetooth 5.0. It’s not listed what CODECs are used here, but the connection is all-around very stable and I never experienced any drops. 

Battery Life

In total, you get up to 25 hours of playtime on the A30. This can be increased to 45 hours when using standard mode without Bluetooth, and you can still use ANC which is a plus. If you’re in need of a quick charge, the A30 offers 2 hours of battery life just from five minutes of charge. 

Soundstage

Noise-canceling headphones can sometimes condense the stereo image into a muddy pile of instruments and effects, and I’m happy to say that doesn’t happen here. Oddly, turning noise-canceling on actually brings more clarity to the soundstage than other, pricier headphones can accomplish. Nothing about the width or depth is too out of the ordinary for this type of headphone, but there is an attempt to portray an accurate representation of spatial imaging. Ranges of frequency are dispersed evenly and appear in the mix with clear positioning. I never felt like it was a fight for the center, which some of these headphones can be, so I was overall, very satisfied with the quality of output I was getting. 

Low End

The lows here aren’t huge, which might put off a chunk of listeners who’re looking for a present bass in their wireless headphones, but they were still relatively clean. It was a bit surprising to me at first, as I find these types of headphones more or less going for that thick, sometimes boomy bass timbre. However, the A30 is relatively scaled back in comparison, opting to supply more natural bass textures that separate themselves quite nicely. I am a fan of both impactful and natural lows, and I get a little bit of both from the A30. 

Mids

We don’t get much of a dedicated midrange present, but what’s there has just as much clarity as the lows. The tonality is balanced more towards the low-mids, making for a subtle, but noticeable warm texture to sound signature. While some headphones use their warmth to muddy the rest of the mids, the A30 actually uses it to bring focus to the ranges of frequency it wants to, still leaving room for clarity.

Highs

Treble here is slightly rolled-off but surprisingly crisp in tonality. The smoothing out of the upper highs makes harshness and sibilance less likely and avoids a brighter timbre. However, the frequency information that is there is highlighted and fully realized. This makes for a more complete output, giving more fidelity to high-end instruments. Cymbals have a slight sizzle and ambiance textures with reverb taper off with a suiting finality.

Summary

I’ve heard a good number of wireless headphones in this price range from the likes of Cowin and even Audio-Technica. OneOdio has crafted one of the more consistently enjoyable headphones in this area, with its timbral clarity, and respectable imaging in its sound signature, and solid build quality. They might run a bit hot after a while, but I still appreciated the level of comfort here. If you’re just getting into wireless ANC headphones, the OneOdio A30 is the perfect place to start.

Pros and Cons

Pros: Clean timbre, Mostly accurate stage, Build, Price

Cons: Ear fatigue after a while  

The OneOdio A30 is available on Amazon.

Discuss the OneOdio A30 on our forums here.

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